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Dogwoods Disappearing

Dogwood. It’s a Virginia favorite –the state tree and the state flower. But we don’t see too many Flowering Dogwood, Cornus florida, trees in the wild. They’ve been hit with dogwood anthracnose, a fungus that’s spread down the Appalachian mountains over the last 20 to 25 years. It makes the leaves wilt and die, cutting off food to the entire plant.

Miz Flora says nearly every front yard in our neighborhood had a Flowering Dogwood planted in it 40 years ago. Today, next to none–Hickory and I found it too depressing to go around and count. So we squirrels are enjoying the few we do have remaining in our neighborhood, and most of them seem to be the pink ones that have been tinkered with in some way. Maybe they aren’t as susceptible.